Alameda County health officials have teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to celebrate the launch of a new advertising campaign focused on getting sexually active black gay and bisexual men to regularly test for HIV.

A free public event will be held Thursday, February 23 in Oakland to explain the goals behind the ads and introduce several of the people who helped create them.

A story in the Thursday, February 16 issue of the Bay Area Reporter described the new campaign, dubbed “Testing Makes Us Stronger.” The ads were rolled out at the start of February and feature both single black men and male couples.

It is the latest iteration of the CDC’s broader Act Against AIDS initiative that began in 2009, which marked the first time the federal agency had specifically focused on gay African American men.

The $2.4 million advertising campaign is running in gay and African-American neighborhoods in six cities where black gay and bisexual men are at greater risk of contracting HIV. In addition to Oakland, the other cities include Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

At next week’s event speakers will include Rashad Burgess, the chief of the capacity building branch division of HIV and AIDS prevention at the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, and Kabir Hypolite, director of the Office of AIDS Administration for the Alameda County Public Health Department.

Also on hand will be out HIV positive photographer Duane Cramer, who helped develop the campaign.

The event takes place from 1:30 to 3 p.m. February 23 at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, 695 14th Street in downtown Oakland.